Former voice of West Michigan Whitecaps returns to broadcast booth this weekend

West Michigan Whitecaps fans will hear a familiar voice on the radio this weekend.

Dave Skoczen, the play-by-play voice for the Whitecaps from 2005-08, will fill in and call the team’s three-game road series against the Lake County Captains, starting at 7 tonight.

Since Ben Chiswick, who is in his second season as the team’s announcer, will be attending a wedding in New York this weekend, Whitecaps vice president Jim Jarecki made the call to Skoczen, who now lives in nearby Cleveland.

“Somehow I ended up at the top of their list,” Skoczen said. “I suppose it’s just because I’m here. But it should be a lot of fun.”

Skoczen left the Whitecaps in 2008 and moved to California, where he worked for a collection agency. The work was fine and he enjoyed being near the family of his wife, Lisa, but after a couple years, they started to miss the Midwest.

Skoczen applied for a few jobs, and when the opportunity came to move back to his native Ohio, he jumped at the chance. The Akron graduate now works as an account executive for ESPN Radio in Cleveland.

“Thank goodness the Indians aren’t terrible,” he said with a laugh. “It is different being in a place that’s this big, even though it’s just like Michigan and losing population. Cleveland is the same in that regard, but it’s still a big place. Because of that, I feel like maybe I’m moving up somewhere. It’s been good so far.”

After spending eight years behind the mic, Skoczen said he doesn’t miss being on the air as much as before.

“I’ll be honest, the first year was difficult for me,” he said. “Just to pick up and move across the country and not to stay in (radio), and then kind of sit there and go through a baseball season and think, ‘Wow, it’s opening day and I’m not doing that anymore,’ that was strange.”

He has stayed in touch with a number of people in the Whitecaps’ front office since he left, and is eager to reunite with the team this weekend — however brief it may be.

“I’ve never been off the air this long and gone back and done it. I’m curious how it’s going to be,” Skoczen said. “I know I’m going to be nervous as heck, especially Friday night. It is going to be neat to have another shot and do it for another couple of days.”

Skoczen especially is looking forward to teaming up with his old broadcast partner, Dan Elve.

“One of the things I really appreciated about working with Elve is I did learn a lot about the game from him,” Skoczen said. “Having him there as more of a student of the game, it helped a lot when he’d say, ‘Look, in this situation, the left side of the infield is playing this way and the right side is doing this, look at where the outfielders are.’ Just the little things like that when you watch it every day and pick up on it.”

Channel chatter
Ratings game: Fox Sports Detroit had to be loving the Red Wings. Tuesday night’s Game 6 of the Red Wings’ series against the San Jose Sharks drew a record household rating of 19.5 in the Detroit metro area, an average of more than 367,000 homes. FSD’s telecast peaked with a 27.6 rating during the closing minutes of the 3-1 victory. That viewership eclipsed FSD’s previous record of 17.5, which came during Game 7 of the Red Wings’ 2009 series against the Anaheim Ducks. FSD must have been thrilled it also got to televise Thursday night’s Game 7.

Tube news: ESPN has obtained the rights to broadcast the “Carrier Classic” on Nov. 11, which will feature the Michigan State and North Carolina men’s basketball teams playing the first game on the deck of a U.S. military aircraft carrier. A basketball court with seating for approximately 7,000 fans will be constructed on the flight deck. As part of the telecast, ESPN will televise a special halftime entertainment show and post-game concert.